Using Poser 8 by Smith Micro, these tutorials will show you how to create custom animations and poses for Second Life.
Tutorials:
Set up - downloading Second Life avatar models into Poser.
Poses - creating "still" animations such as standing and sitting and how to upload to Second Life.
Animations - creating moving animations such as walking and how to upload to Second Life.
Priorities - the "layers" that determine which animations will play.
Poseballs - Little balls that you can place the animation inside.
Animation Overrider - A program that lets you override default animations.
Set up:
First you need to get the avatar models into Poser.
1. Click here to download the zipped file called "avatar_mesh". The file should contain what is in the picture below.
2. Next you need to open the Poser file titled "Poser 8" for Macs or "Poser 8 Content" for Windows. From there go to Runtime>Libraries>Character.
3. Go back to your avatar_mesh file. Copy and paste the folder called "SL Avatar" into the the Character folder.
Now both the female and male avatar models will show up in the character list in Poser's Library for you to make custom poses and animations.
Priorities
In order to run multiple animations at a time it is good to know how to use priority levels. In Second Life the priorities range from 0 (lowest) to 4 (highest).
Priority 0: Used for internal animations. This priority is meant to be easily overridden by other animations.
Priority 1: Also used for internal animations, Priority 1 is commonly used to put facial expressions and viewer-generated animations as priority 1.
Priority 2: Most used for stands put in Animations Overridders.
Priority 3: Is good for walking, sitting, and flying animations.
Priority 4: Is used for poseballs and other "special" animations such as dances.
When multiple animations are trying to be played on a avatar, the animation with the highest priority will show. If the are multiple animations and they all have the same priority, the most recently started one will play. Unfortunately, having competing animations is very common since many people give their common walking animations a priority 4. Resulting in awkward experiences when trying to use a special priority 4 animation. So be mindful when setting the priority of your animation by knowing what the animation's intended use is.
Creating a Pose:
While technically an animation, a pose refers to standing, siting, and other "still" animations. This tutorial deals with these types of "pose" animations. The gist of creating poses is to create two frames. The second frame is used for the pose, and the first frame is to be untouched. When loaded in Second Life as a BVH file, and looped, Second Life will not read the first frame and display only the second frame. Thus making a pose.
1. Start Poser and bring out your Second Life avatar by selecting it and clicking the single check mark. A couple of dialog boxes may come up. Leave everything unchecked and click ok.
2. At the bottom of the screen is the frame count that reads "Frame:00001 of 00030". Click the "00030" and change it to just two frames. A box will appear and warn you that this action is not undoable, which is fine. Click ok.
3. It is very important that you DO NOT change or move the avatar in the first frame. If the world is ending, you STILL DO NOT move the avatar in the first frame!
4. Move the scrubber (the yellow triangle) over to the second frame or click "0001" and type "2" to go to the second frame. This is the frame where you will make the pose. If the world is ending, you can change the avatar in the second frame and be happy.
5. Make your pose. I made a ground sitting pose but you can do whatever you like.
6. When you are done you can click the play button at the bottom left of the screen. It should look like your avatar is suffering the worlds worst seizure, which is good. Poser is playing and showing both frames; however, Second Life plays but does not show the first frame. Only the second frame shown in Second Life.
7. Go the File menu and click Export > BVH motion. In the Import Options box have "Scale automatically" selected, click ok and save it.
8. Open Second Life and open you inventory. Click the plus icon and the bottom of the screen, go to Upload>Animation. Find your BVH file and open it.
9. The upload animation box should appear. Check "loop" and play the animation. You should see the scrubber break the speed of light but the avatar should be doing the pose without any "seizures".
10. From there you can select what hand pose or expression you want to use, rename it, give it a description. I suggest leaving the priority of 3. When you are done click Upload, this will cost L$10.
And that's all she wrote! Good luck in your future posing in Second Life.
Creating an Animation
Unlike poses, animations actually animate your avatar. Some of the most common animations are walking, running, and flying. In this tutorial we will make a walking animation using Poser's Walk Designer. Then we will save it as a BVH file and upload it to Second Life.
1. Start Poser and bring out your Second Life model by selecting it and clicking the single check mark. A couple of dialog boxes may come up. Leave everything unchecked and click ok.
2. Go to the Window menu and open the Walk Designer.
3. Next we need to replace the Poser model with the Second Life model. Start by clicking Figure Type. Now, just like the Set Up tutorial, you need to go where you put your "Poser 8" or "Poser 8 Content" file and go to Runtime>Libraries>Character>SL Avatar. From there select either the female or male .cr2 documents and click Open. Walk designer will begin to load the model.
4. In Blend Styles, use the sliders to make your walking/running animation. Be sure not to over use the sliders or else the animation just looks funky, unless funky is what you are aiming for.
5. Press the Walk button to preview what the walk animation will look like. If the looks wrong to you then keep adjusting the sliders until you have the animation you want. It is also a good idea to view the preview from different angles. You can do this by pressing 3/4, Slide, Front, or Top. You can also use the tweak sliders at the bottom to make subtle adjustments to the animation.
6. In this case, a funky animation was totally needed. When you are finished click Apply.
7. The Apply Walk box should appear. Select "Walk in place", change the Cycle repetitions to 2, and change End frame to 60. This will have the animation walk two strides before looping back again. A different way to do this is set it to 1 repetition and put the End frame at 30. That will set the animation to one stride. When looped both ways look the same, but having one repetition make a smaller file size. I put two repetitions in to compare the second stride in the animation to the beginning and end frames to make sure the looping looks the way it should.
8. Now enter 2 in Start frame and add 1 + End frame number. This will move the entire animation over one frame. This way the first frame is untouched and the model is still in the T-pose. This allows Second Life to read the first frame and correctly align the animation to the model, preventing your model from walking off axis. When uploaded to Second Life, the first frame will not be seen and the animation should loop smoothly. In "Create Keyframes in:" select layer. This will allow you to make adjustments should you feel the need to do so.
9. Click OK and close the Walk Designer. Now we are going to play the animation but first we need to make sure it is looping. At the bottom of the screen beneath the play controls you should see "Loop". Make sure the dot is highlighted and play the animation.
10. Again it would be wise to look at the animation from different angles to make sure it is the way you want it. If something is wrong go back and open the Walk Designer again. If everything checks out then go to File Menu>Export>BVH motion. In the Import Options box have "Scale Automatically" selected, click ok and save the file.
11. Open Second Life and open you inventory. Click the plus icon and the bottom of the screen, go to Upload>Animation. Find your BVH file and open it.
12. The upload animation box should appear. Bring the priority level to 3 or 4, so it overrides the default animations on the avatar. Check the Loop box. Play the animation to make sure it works correctly.
13. When everything works out click Upload. This will cost L$10.
There you go, your own custom animation!
Poseballs
Poseballs are prims that contain one or more an animations. When an avatar "sits" on the poseball, it will play the animation(s) the prim contains. Virtually all Poseballs are made using a sphere, hence the name, but it does not matter what prim is used. It is also commonplace to color the poseballs blue (male) or red/pink (female) to tell which gender the poseball is for. In this tutorial I will show you how to make a simple poseball that plays one animation. You will be using scripting for this as well, which I will provide. However, you will need to supply yourself with the animations.
1. Open Second Life, then open the Build Window and create a prim, preferably a sphere, and name it. In the Build Window click on the Content tab. Find your animation in your inventory and drag and drop it into the Contents folder. In my infinite laziness, I will just use the animation I created in the previous tutorial. I suggest using a priority 4 animation
2. Next we will need to make a script that plays the animation when the avatar sits on it. Click New Script and it should give out a friendly "Hello, Avatar". For this tutorial, that greeting is to be treated as a war cry and threat. Open the new script, wherein lies the enemy text (hostile and extremely dangerous) and needs to be annihilated. Delete it. All of it.
3. Now you need to put in the text that we want. Copy and paste the following into Second Life:
changed(integer change) { key id = llAvatarOnSitTarget(); if(change & CHANGED_LINK) { if (id != NULL_KEY && g_LastAvatar == NULL_KEY) { g_LastAvatar = id; if (!(llGetPermissions() & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION)) { llRequestPermissions(id, PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION); } } if (id == NULL_KEY && g_LastAvatar != NULL_KEY) { if (llGetPermissions() & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION) { llStopAnimation(g_Animation); } llResetScript(); } } }
run_time_permissions(integer perm) { if (!(perm & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION)) { llInstantMessage(g_LastAvatar, "Permissions are Required."); llUnSit(g_LastAvatar); } llStartAnimation(g_Animation); } }
4. Notice at the beginning of the script it says "play animation" and "animation name". Change the "animation name" with the name of the animation you put in the contents folder. For example, I need to put in "funky walk". Be sure to type in the name EXACTLY as the file name is. Changing "play animation" will change the "sit" text you see when you right-click the object. You can change "play animation" to whatever you like.
5. When you are done click Save. Give it some time to "read" the script and if everything checks out it should say "Save complete." If something is screwed up then delete all the text and go back to step 3. When everything is ok then you can close the script.
6. Right click on your poseball and check to see if your "sit" text has changed. Some letters may be cut off on the menu since the menu can only hold so many letters. Go ahead and "sit" on your new poseball. You may have to rotate, reposition, and resize (you have to get off your poseball to resize) your poseball once you realize how goofy it is when you sit on it, like mine did.7. After resizing and repositioning, and all that good stuff, go to the Texture tab and change the color and give it a blank texture.
Now close the Build Window and you are done! Congratulations!
Animation Overrider
An Animations Overrider, or AO, is a program that lets you use you override the default animations with your own animations. This tutorial will use the Zhao Animation Overrider. It is available in the Gadgets section in our Library for you to use. I will show you how to put it on your HUD and then how to use it.
1. Go to the UC SL Library. On the third floor (Gadgets floor) go to the Heads Up Display section. Click on the "GADGETS-ZHAO" box to receive the ZHAO Animation Overrider.
2. Head out to a place where you can rez the object the Library gave you. Right click it and selects Open. In there, you want the object "UC Bookstore - Gadgets - HD - Zaho 1". That is the object you will wear on you hud. Click and drag it out to the ground to rez it. Then right click Put On>Attach HUD, then select where you want to put it. The AO should now be on your HUD.
3. Right click on the AO and select Edit. In the Build window go to the Content Tab. Find the animation file you want to use and drop it in the Contents folder. In this case I will use the "funky walk" animation.
4. In the Contents folder there should be a note called "Default", open it. After scrolling down you should see a list of animation categories contained in brackets. This is where you will type in the name of your animation. Find the category you want your animation to replace. Since my animation is a walking animation, normal people would think to put it in the Walking category. I'll do that, but I will also put it in the Flying category for giggles. When you are done click save.
5. Now we need the AO to load the Default notecard. On the AO, press the button in the first column and third down. A message will appear and want you to select which notecard to load. Select Default and give it some time to load. It will tell you when it has finished loading.
The AO should now play the new animation whenever you "activate" the category it is in.
Using Poser 8 by Smith Micro, these tutorials will show you how to create custom animations and poses for Second Life.
Tutorials:
Set up:
First you need to get the avatar models into Poser.
1. Click here to download the zipped file called "avatar_mesh". The file should contain what is in the picture below.
2. Next you need to open the Poser file titled "Poser 8" for Macs or "Poser 8 Content" for Windows. From there go to Runtime>Libraries>Character.
3. Go back to your avatar_mesh file. Copy and paste the folder called "SL Avatar" into the the Character folder.
Now both the female and male avatar models will show up in the character list in Poser's Library for you to make custom poses and animations.
Priorities
In order to run multiple animations at a time it is good to know how to use priority levels. In Second Life the priorities range from 0 (lowest) to 4 (highest).
Priority 0: Used for internal animations. This priority is meant to be easily overridden by other animations.
Priority 1: Also used for internal animations, Priority 1 is commonly used to put facial expressions and viewer-generated animations as priority 1.
Priority 2: Most used for stands put in Animations Overridders.
Priority 3: Is good for walking, sitting, and flying animations.
Priority 4: Is used for poseballs and other "special" animations such as dances.
When multiple animations are trying to be played on a avatar, the animation with the highest priority will show. If the are multiple animations and they all have the same priority, the most recently started one will play. Unfortunately, having competing animations is very common since many people give their common walking animations a priority 4. Resulting in awkward experiences when trying to use a special priority 4 animation. So be mindful when setting the priority of your animation by knowing what the animation's intended use is.
Creating a Pose:
While technically an animation, a pose refers to standing, siting, and other "still" animations. This tutorial deals with these types of "pose" animations. The gist of creating poses is to create two frames. The second frame is used for the pose, and the first frame is to be untouched. When loaded in Second Life as a BVH file, and looped, Second Life will not read the first frame and display only the second frame. Thus making a pose.
1. Start Poser and bring out your Second Life avatar by selecting it and clicking the single check mark. A couple of dialog boxes may come up. Leave everything unchecked and click ok.
2. At the bottom of the screen is the frame count that reads "Frame:00001 of 00030". Click the "00030" and change it to just two frames. A box will appear and warn you that this action is not undoable, which is fine. Click ok.
3. It is very important that you DO NOT change or move the avatar in the first frame. If the world is ending, you STILL DO NOT move the avatar in the first frame!
4. Move the scrubber (the yellow triangle) over to the second frame or click "0001" and type "2" to go to the second frame. This is the frame where you will make the pose. If the world is ending, you can change the avatar in the second frame and be happy.
5. Make your pose. I made a ground sitting pose but you can do whatever you like.
6. When you are done you can click the play button at the bottom left of the screen. It should look like your avatar is suffering the worlds worst seizure, which is good. Poser is playing and showing both frames; however, Second Life plays but does not show the first frame. Only the second frame shown in Second Life.
7. Go the File menu and click Export > BVH motion. In the Import Options box have "Scale automatically" selected, click ok and save it.
8. Open Second Life and open you inventory. Click the plus icon and the bottom of the screen, go to Upload>Animation. Find your BVH file and open it.
9. The upload animation box should appear. Check "loop" and play the animation. You should see the scrubber break the speed of light but the avatar should be doing the pose without any "seizures".
10. From there you can select what hand pose or expression you want to use, rename it, give it a description. I suggest leaving the priority of 3. When you are done click Upload, this will cost L$10.
And that's all she wrote! Good luck in your future posing in Second Life.
Creating an Animation
Unlike poses, animations actually animate your avatar. Some of the most common animations are walking, running, and flying. In this tutorial we will make a walking animation using Poser's Walk Designer. Then we will save it as a BVH file and upload it to Second Life.
1. Start Poser and bring out your Second Life model by selecting it and clicking the single check mark. A couple of dialog boxes may come up. Leave everything unchecked and click ok.
2. Go to the Window menu and open the Walk Designer.
3. Next we need to replace the Poser model with the Second Life model. Start by clicking Figure Type. Now, just like the Set Up tutorial, you need to go where you put your "Poser 8" or "Poser 8 Content" file and go to Runtime>Libraries>Character>SL Avatar. From there select either the female or male .cr2 documents and click Open. Walk designer will begin to load the model.
4. In Blend Styles, use the sliders to make your walking/running animation. Be sure not to over use the sliders or else the animation just looks funky, unless funky is what you are aiming for.
5. Press the Walk button to preview what the walk animation will look like. If the looks wrong to you then keep adjusting the sliders until you have the animation you want. It is also a good idea to view the preview from different angles. You can do this by pressing 3/4, Slide, Front, or Top. You can also use the tweak sliders at the bottom to make subtle adjustments to the animation.
6. In this case, a funky animation was totally needed. When you are finished click Apply.
7. The Apply Walk box should appear. Select "Walk in place", change the Cycle repetitions to 2, and change End frame to 60. This will have the animation walk two strides before looping back again. A different way to do this is set it to 1 repetition and put the End frame at 30. That will set the animation to one stride. When looped both ways look the same, but having one repetition make a smaller file size. I put two repetitions in to compare the second stride in the animation to the beginning and end frames to make sure the looping looks the way it should.
9. Click OK and close the Walk Designer. Now we are going to play the animation but first we need to make sure it is looping. At the bottom of the screen beneath the play controls you should see "Loop". Make sure the dot is highlighted and play the animation.
10. Again it would be wise to look at the animation from different angles to make sure it is the way you want it. If something is wrong go back and open the Walk Designer again. If everything checks out then go to File Menu>Export>BVH motion. In the Import Options box have "Scale Automatically" selected, click ok and save the file.
11. Open Second Life and open you inventory. Click the plus icon and the bottom of the screen, go to Upload>Animation. Find your BVH file and open it.
12. The upload animation box should appear. Bring the priority level to 3 or 4, so it overrides the default animations on the avatar. Check the Loop box. Play the animation to make sure it works correctly.
13. When everything works out click Upload. This will cost L$10.
There you go, your own custom animation!
Poseballs
Poseballs are prims that contain one or more an animations. When an avatar "sits" on the poseball, it will play the animation(s) the prim contains. Virtually all Poseballs are made using a sphere, hence the name, but it does not matter what prim is used. It is also commonplace to color the poseballs blue (male) or red/pink (female) to tell which gender the poseball is for. In this tutorial I will show you how to make a simple poseball that plays one animation. You will be using scripting for this as well, which I will provide. However, you will need to supply yourself with the animations.
1. Open Second Life, then open the Build Window and create a prim, preferably a sphere, and name it. In the Build Window click on the Content tab. Find your animation in your inventory and drag and drop it into the Contents folder. In my infinite laziness, I will just use the animation I created in the previous tutorial. I suggest using a priority 4 animation
2. Next we will need to make a script that plays the animation when the avatar sits on it. Click New Script and it should give out a friendly "Hello, Avatar". For this tutorial, that greeting is to be treated as a war cry and threat. Open the new script, wherein lies the enemy text (hostile and extremely dangerous) and needs to be annihilated. Delete it. All of it.
3. Now you need to put in the text that we want. Copy and paste the following into Second Life:
string g_SitText = "play animation";
string g_Animation = "animation name";
vector g_SitOffset = <0.00, 0.00, 0.001>;
key g_LastAvatar = NULL_KEY;
default
{
state_entry()
{
llSetSitText(g_SitText);
llSitTarget(g_SitOffset, ZERO_ROTATION);
}
changed(integer change)
{
key id = llAvatarOnSitTarget();
if(change & CHANGED_LINK)
{
if (id != NULL_KEY && g_LastAvatar == NULL_KEY)
{
g_LastAvatar = id;
if (!(llGetPermissions() & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION))
{
llRequestPermissions(id, PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION);
}
}
if (id == NULL_KEY && g_LastAvatar != NULL_KEY)
{
if (llGetPermissions() & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION)
{
llStopAnimation(g_Animation);
}
llResetScript();
}
}
}
run_time_permissions(integer perm)
{
if (!(perm & PERMISSION_TRIGGER_ANIMATION))
{
llInstantMessage(g_LastAvatar, "Permissions are Required.");
llUnSit(g_LastAvatar);
}
llStartAnimation(g_Animation);
}
}
4. Notice at the beginning of the script it says "play animation" and "animation name". Change the "animation name" with the name of the animation you put in the contents folder. For example, I need to put in "funky walk". Be sure to type in the name EXACTLY as the file name is. Changing "play animation" will change the "sit" text you see when you right-click the object. You can change "play animation" to whatever you like.
5. When you are done click Save. Give it some time to "read" the script and if everything checks out it should say "Save complete." If something is screwed up then delete all the text and go back to step 3. When everything is ok then you can close the script.
Animation Overrider
An Animations Overrider, or AO, is a program that lets you use you override the default animations with your own animations. This tutorial will use the Zhao Animation Overrider. It is available in the Gadgets section in our Library for you to use. I will show you how to put it on your HUD and then how to use it.
1. Go to the UC SL Library. On the third floor (Gadgets floor) go to the Heads Up Display section. Click on the "GADGETS-ZHAO" box to receive the ZHAO Animation Overrider.
2. Head out to a place where you can rez the object the Library gave you. Right click it and selects Open. In there, you want the object "UC Bookstore - Gadgets - HD - Zaho 1". That is the object you will wear on you hud. Click and drag it out to the ground to rez it. Then right click Put On>Attach HUD, then select where you want to put it. The AO should now be on your HUD.
3. Right click on the AO and select Edit. In the Build window go to the Content Tab. Find the animation file you want to use and drop it in the Contents folder. In this case I will use the "funky walk" animation.
4. In the Contents folder there should be a note called "Default", open it. After scrolling down you should see a list of animation categories contained in brackets. This is where you will type in the name of your animation. Find the category you want your animation to replace. Since my animation is a walking animation, normal people would think to put it in the Walking category. I'll do that, but I will also put it in the Flying category for giggles. When you are done click save.
5. Now we need the AO to load the Default notecard. On the AO, press the button in the first column and third down. A message will appear and want you to select which notecard to load. Select Default and give it some time to load. It will tell you when it has finished loading.
The AO should now play the new animation whenever you "activate" the category it is in.